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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22949623">End of the Line</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookofstars/pseuds/bookofstars'>bookofstars</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pathfinder: Kingmaker (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Spoilers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:15:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>651</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22949623</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookofstars/pseuds/bookofstars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is not how their journey was supposed to end.</p>
<p>(A short fic processing the events of Chapter 7.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>The Baron &amp; Linzi (Pathfinder: Kingmaker)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>End of the Line</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The king knelt on the cold stone floor. His trousers, already spattered with fresh blood from the recent fight against the satyr, slowly turned into a more solid crimson from the blood pooling on the floor. It was not his own blood. No, it originated from the small, motionless body lying in front of him. </p>
<p>Out of all of his companions, he never thought Linzi would be the one to die. He had been so sure he would find her alive and well like he had the others. He and his companions had had many close calls with deaths during their adventures, but she had an enchanted ring that whisked her away to safety when the situation turned dire. It had not even occurred to him that the ring may not work here, in this alien realm.</p>
<p>Would she be alive if he had been just a bit faster? He shivered as he remembered Jamandi Aldori’s cold stare after Kassil’s death and the empty space in his court where the half-orc once stood. Had he failed her the same way he had the Aldori? As he had Kesten Garess and his men during the Bloom? As he almost had Amiri and her friend Nilak, if he had been just a bit slower getting to the battlefield that day? </p>
<p>Now, he had failed Linzi, his oldest friend, too. She had been by his side when they fought back the assassins in the Aldori mansion, then followed him to the Stolen Lands alongside Amiri and Harrim. She fought beside him against Tartuccio, the Stag Lord, Vordakai, Armag, and Irovetti. She wrote the script for his coronation, presented him to the crowd, and placed the crown upon his head. She had lifted his and his other companions’ spirits on so many occasions with her cheerfulness and songs.</p>
<p>And now she is gone.</p>
<p>His hands trembled as he gently lifted the journal from her clenched hands and hugged it to his chest. His already shallow breathing turned ragged as tears forced their way out. Linzi had poured her heart and soul into writing it, chronicling their adventures together. Even if she herself would never return home, he could at least return this part of her.</p>
<p>Closing his eyes, he took one deep breath, then another, and another, focusing on the rhythm until the tears stopped. Her skin was already noticeably cooler than it would have been in life. She had probably died hours ago, long before he emerged from the portal. There was nothing he could have done to save her.</p>
<p>After one last deep breath, the king flipped through the journal to the last page. The vision of the past revealed that Linzi died while collecting information on Nyrissa and her House at the End of Time. He would not let her sacrifice be in vain.</p>
<p>The journal mentioned a shrine containing the Apology, the chalice Nyrissa needed to fill with dust from a thousand fallen kingdoms to regain the Lantern King’s favor, and the three keys needed to open the door to it. One of those keys required solving a complicated puzzle that the king never would have guessed at on his own.</p>
<p>The king smiled sadly. “Thank you, Linzi,” he said.</p>
<p>But there was more text on the page after this. The king grew increasingly confused as the journal described his arrival at the house, his discovery of Linzi’s body and his subsequent grief. It even cheekily referenced his own confusion.</p>
<p>“Linzi?” he exclaimed.</p>
<p>Sure enough, new text appeared on the page. It described, with Linzi’s usual cheer, how the halfling bard’s soul was now bound to her journal. She mused about whether books can read other books, and complained about needing to live in a dusty library in the future.</p>
<p>Tears streaming from his eyes, the king let out a short, bittersweet laugh as he hugged the journal -- no, Linzi -- again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>One of my partners and I have been playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker at the same time. I got to the end of the game before she did, which left me with no one to discuss it with. So I wrote out my feelings instead.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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